William "Rick" Singer, a former college admissions consultant, admitted in 2019 to facilitating cheating on college entrance exams and funneling money from wealthy parents to university coaches who would accept their children as fake athletic recruits.
His sentence is the longest of any given to people charged in the so-called "Operation Varsity Blues" investigation.
He was paid more than $25 million for his services, in a scheme that resulted in the conviction of more than 50 people, including actors Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, who were among wealthy parents Singer had as clients.
Overall, Singer paid out more than $7 million to bribe coaches and administrators at schools including Georgetown University, the University of Southern California, Yale University and Stanford University.
However, his 3.5-year sentence fell short of the six years prosecutors said was warranted for his unprecedented fraud.
Prosecutors acknowledged Singer helped with the FBI's probe, and allowed them to pursue his wealthy clients.
But his cooperation was "problematic", they said, as he tipped off at least six clients so they could avoid incriminating themselves.
Singer, who's now 62 years old and lives in a Florida trailer park, said in a court filing he lost everything because of the scheme.
He apologized to his family, students and the schools to which he had caused "great embarrassment".
